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BowieQuest
BowieQuest is a platforming game developed by TimeStrike and published by Sega for the Sega Genesis and eventually the Sega CD, marking the company's debut in the video game industry. It was released on March 1st, 1995 worldwide on the former console, with its special edition released on the Sega CD in mid-November. Its premise revolves around the game's playable cast of three fluffy teddy bear deputies (including eponymous protagonist Bowie the Teddy Bear) as they try and prevent their precious world of arts and crafts from being stripped of its worth by the technologically advanced stuffed monkey antagonist known as Endal the Monkey, who wishes to dominate and industrialize the world. Not only must they reach the evil monkey's Ironworks lair, they must also save the kidnapped mayor of their hometown Western Village from his clutches and put down anyone that stands in their way. BowieQuest boasted simplistic platforming controls balanced upon exceptionally challenging gameplay, being an easy game to learn but a hard one to master. BowieQuest attempted to dare traditional gaming standards at the time, including having a reworked lives system involving collecting enough raisins to satisfy the reaper upon their next death and having a Time Attack mode to record the player's best time for each level. Casual audiences can familiarize themselves with the game through Story Mode, while hardcore players can select Arcade mode to play without any save files, only being able to “quicksave” at best. BowieQuest was known for pushing the hardware limitations of the Genesis, having faced threats of cancellation various times prior to its eventual release. The “Special Edition” port on the Sega CD would further expand upon features from the original BowieQuest, including having Paul the Teddy Bear as a playable character, having a greater selection of bosses overall, introducing a bonus level, and having a semi-remastered soundtrack. It would also introduce the Expert level of difficulty and greatly expand Time Attack mode. Plot Manual introduction :A fantastic picnic held by Sheriff Bowie and the townsfolk of the Western Village a little ways into the nearby desert heads south rather fast! Just as they think they can enjoy their thread noodles in peace, the diabolical monkey known as Endal sabotages the village with his army of Monkeybots and other assorted mechanical minions! As he kidnaps the mayor and lets chaos ensue, he turns to the sheriff to block his attack with his psychic rod, guffawing at him in the process. He quickly expresses his frustration with his rival's continuous winning streak against him over the past decade, proceeding to threaten that he'll strip Stitchonia of everything it's composed of, furthering his plans in the industrial revolution and allowing him to conquer the world without a struggle! As Endal boards his Zeppelin, he claims he'll have the last laugh because he has a backup plan to receive the wish-granting Dreamcatcher, taunting with a finger wag as he begins to fly away. :Sheriff Bowie and his family waste no time in heading back into the village, boarding their house to suit up for the journey and gear themselves up for combat! After the trio give each other a group hug and exchange some nods of good luck and great fortune, they bash their way out of their house and venture into the chaos, ready to give Endal and his troops a piece of their mind! As the music for the first level kicks in, Endal's Zeppelin can be seen slowly hovering across the background, stripping away some of the landmasses already while dumping what's implied to be his thousands of troops. Meanwhile, Bowie's elder brother is seen standing dead-center atop the Western Village church, watching the chaos unfold. Flashbacks of Bowie being favored over him in their youth play in his mind, more playing of him having to fend for himself when he had to live solo at such a young age. Snarling, Paul leaps right off of the church's top, slamming his fist into the ground dramatically- he's going to challenge his sibling and hang Endal's head up on his wall, even if it's the last thing he does. Ending Setting ''BowieQuest takes place in the beloved world of Stitchonia, a brewing coalescence of arts and crafts rolled up and around into one beloved mess of a planet. The landmasses are patchworks assembled together from needles and thread, with sticky lethal seas and oceans of black ink ("Inkura") between them. Hexagon-shaped platforms found irregularly across the world happen to grow living biologic organisms, specifically trees to supply the world with its ever-popular wood supply. Surrounding the world happens to be several moons magically tethered to the planet, which regularly get mined for their various materials. Among the most common materials in Stitchonia include wood, clay, stone, sand, glass, plastic, and iron. The grand capital of the world, Origamopolis, singlehandedly produces the magical energy necessary to keep everything well-fortified and in place. It is all governed by a short-looking monkey in a swivel chair, but all landmasses have their own respective presidents. Six landmasses exist across the whole of Stitchonia, though only three are explorable throughout BowieQuest and its CD port. These continents are Buonarroti, Temko, and Pluto, listed in the same order the player visits them. Buonarroti is one of the world's largest landmasses, split and torn apart by the decade by massive earthquakes, but having beloved villages on its western and eastern ends alike and having some stunning mountaintops and beaches. Temko holds the global capital (Origamopolis) and is composed almost entirely of super-firm origami, drifting its way slowly across the Inkura waters while housing hundreds of thousands if not millions of inhabitants. Pluto is an ancient landmass that is thought to be where all Stitchonian life began, holding many ancient artifacts and ruins that are currently being polluted and erased by the ongoing industrial revolution began by Endal's tribe. Stitchonia is inhabited by sentient stuffed animals of all varieties, though teddy bears tend to be the most common species. Gameplay Basics BowieQuest is an exceptionally challenging platforming video game, known for its design philosophy of being easy to learn but hard to master. To even have a chance of overcoming the game's relentless difficulty curve and numerous challenges, the player needs to have a strong grip on their chosen character and understand all of the game's mechanics and gimmicks to the best of their ability. Not only do the levels frequently take advantage of the player's talents, but they must also be cleared underneath specified time limits, requiring the player to act fast- though what the player's given is usually plenty of time. These 4-6 minute levels culminate with boss battles, which must be crushed underneath their own respective time limits- upon their scrapping, the player may collect the golden star they drop to signify the end of the level. Should the player choose to tackle optional side-missions, such as clearing out a percentage of baddies from the level, they will earn bonus bundles of raisins upon taking down the boss. The level design in BowieQuest is outright demanding of the player's skills, forcing them to get familiar with their full arsenal and take advantage of it to overcome problem-solving. By far the most useful asset the player has is the whip, a stunningly versatile tool that the game's level design is significantly based around. Each teddy bear has their own individual whip, each with their own unique and special properties, but all whips can snag ledges, strike blows to enemies, and snatch far-off bundles of raisins or balls of fabric. Some of these whips may function significantly differently on the offensive side, with Bowie's average-sized rope capable of suplexing enemies while Anna's is quite a bit shorter but provides instant and reliable damage, cracking quicker than her husband's rope. All teddy bears also possess other elements unique to themselves; Bowie's sheriff badges allow him to scale walls, for example, while Smith has a cork gun that he can aim to smash up targets from afar. These levels are also abundant with enemies, which the player must crush frequently like they were bugs. A common feature of the game is the wooden knob, always found suspended mid-air as one of the game's most commonly found objects. Should the player strike one of these knobs with their rope, they will be able to swing from it like it were a vine or swing around it to build momentum before flinging themselves off. They come in many varieties as well, even more so than the rebounding yarn the game is known for. Mechanical knobs can be spun around to infinitely produce electricity, powering up places for brief periods of time before they shut back off. Loose knobs will shake a little when spun around, dropping soon or right when the player swings off of it. Icy knobs won't keep the player's grip on for long and will force them to let go quickly. Finally, crimson knobs don't appear to be dangerous on the surface, but grow spikes and damage the player if they hold on for too long. These knobs are kept floating midair thanks to the special magic of the planet Stitchonia keeping the world together. The signature feature of the BowieQuest franchise is its rebounding yarn, a flexible mechanic designed to be abused to the player's will, allowing them to overcome challenging obstacles with relative ease. All surfaces that are detected by the game as being made from yarn are subject to this mechanic. Using the jump button immediately upon landing with the ground will allow the player to trounce higher into the sky by 1.5x the original distance. This special yarn can also be found in the form of slopes, which the player can use to cross chasms or escape danger and/or pressure from bosses. If found in the form of walls, the player can spring right off of them to glide horizontally through the air for a few seconds before eventually descending. This mechanic can be used in tandem with the player's existing abilities to take interesting pathways or shortcuts that were designed intentionally to be discovered by clever players. The two most common items, raisins and balls of fabric, can be found individually floating about in the air, either by themselves or in groups. Raisins are the game's currency and can be used to purchase items from Ace's shop, but 100 Raisins are deducted from the player's total for each death they receive so they may pay off the hungry Reaper and return to the level- if they don't have enough, it's a game over. Receiving enough balls of fabric will slowly restore the player's health, rendering them less vulnerable to attacks. 10 balls of fabric are necessary to restore one point of health. Ace's shop can be accessed from the world map screen, the death screen, and from the file select screen- no matter how you access it, she always has a number of things to sell Sheriff Bowie and his family, which can be helpful especially throughout the later levels. She also sells individual Health Packs, a near-necessity for playthroughs of the relentless Arcade Mode that grant the player an additional hit point. The items Ace has for sale can be rarely found at points throughout the levels. Items are used immediately upon entering a level. Remember that all teddy bears have their own raisin counts and health meters. The player's HUD works as follows. The player's dot-represented health meter can be found at the very bottom of the screen, with raisins counted to the right and fabric balls counted to the left. If the fabric ball meter reaches ten, it will empty to restore one health point to the player. If they're already at full health, the meter will continue to increase if more fabric balls are collected, dropping by ten for each health point that is lost. The raisin counter will be colored gold if the player has enough to withstand their next encounter with the Reaper; if not, it will be flashing red. The level's timer will be ticking away at the top of the screen, with the accumulated score found to the left and the personal best records for the level found to the right. The Sega CD port of BowieQuest introduces a few new concepts. Ace's shop can now be uncommonly found throughout the levels themselves, with her offerings always being at a discount of 30%, 60%, or 90% off. Lost-and-Found boxes will also take the place to the Bonus Zone, whereas they can earn many upon many bundles of raisins before being booted out of the level, whether the player wins or not. Overworld The player's overworld in the Sega Genesis version of BowieQuest is an ancient-looking map of the Stitchonian world, with magenta dots labeled with numbers depicting the game's many levels. When the player begins their adventure, the whole map is painted with an uninspired bronze-looking color, with only the western end of the Buonarroti continent visible initially. As the player clears these levels, however, their spot on the map will be colored out by ink as a pencil draws up more of the map, pinpointing the player to their next location. When the player clears the Western Village level, they'll also gain instant access to Ace's Shop and can swap between any of their characters freely. Only Bowie may visit the true final level, however, forcing a switchover to the sheriff if the player wishes to challenge the level. In the Sega CD version of the port, Stitchonia's levels pop out from the main map as animated 3D clay models, commonly depicting one or two of the level's recurring themes. Though they start off grayscale, they will be fully colored in upon their completion. Controls The standard Sega Genesis controller is the standard controller for BowieQuest. *The player uses the D-Pad to move left and right, double tapping will let them run. Holding up or down when on the ground will move the camera in those respective directions. *The A button allows the player to jump. Pressing the button again will make the character perform an additional command or two. Holding a wall will let the player perform a wall jump. *The B button enables the player to use their whip function. The whip can be used for swinging around knobs, hitching onto ledges, and attacking enemies. *The C button allows the player to use their own unique function. Bowie, for example, can toss out sheriff badges and stick them to walls so he may use them as ladders. *The Start button allows the player to pause the game. Modes There are several available modes in BowieQuest. *' ' Story Mode is the main game in BowieQuest, and the mode of choice for casual audiences. The player can have up to three save files. The player must navigate their way through twelve fully-fledged stages, beginning at the Western Village and culminating at the Fractured Heaven. They will travel across a world map as they do such, with the game automatically saving for each level they individually beat. Skippable cutscenes will play between levels and before a selected handful of bosses. While Story Mode is often straightforward and players will just be going through one level after another, they can visit any old stages if they so wish to. *' ' Arcade Mode was designed purely for hardcore audiences, being the tighter and tougher experience of the game. The player must again navigate their way through the same twelve stages, but this time there's no world map, no cutscenes, nor is there any way to save your game beyond quicksaving. The player must continually collect raisins as they go- the moment the player dies and is unable to present enough raisins to the Reaper, it's all over for them and it becomes game over. Unlike in Story Mode, the number of raisins the Reaper needs to be fed in order for the player to continue their adventure will slightly increase with each death. *' ' Exclusive to the Sega CD version of BowieQuest, Expert Mode is the burlier and tougher brother of Story/Arcade Mode and requires extra mastery and technique to beat. With raisins being notably less common than before, there is much less room for error, especially if the player wishes to purchase items to help give them a boost in the long run. Level designs and object placements are adjusted for Expert Mode to make better use of the player's character's abilities and techniques, and bosses have been tweaked a little bit to make them slightly harder. Expert Mode also introduces new boss fights and has one extra stage provided the player can beat the final boss. *' ' Race the clock on any level you've already beaten in Time Attack mode! The player should go for the best time possible, not wasting any time and making it to the end to pick up the level's golden star. The player has infinite tries if they have checkpoints enabled, but the time will not be set back when they die. If they mess up, they can reset at any time by pausing and selecting "Restart". Their best time will be recorded on the level select screen. The Sega CD version of the mode makes some changes, such as saving the player's best three times per level and allowing the player to face off against bosses separately. They can do one-minute runs of each level, as well. *' ' Butcher Mode has the player take on all of the game's bosses, one after the other, fought in a strict order chosen by the game! The player notably has infinite health throughout their run, but all bosses are fought underneath a shared time limit. For every boss the player successfully trashes, they'll earn 90 seconds' worth of time, but every hit they take will subtract 5 from the clock! Sometimes whipping projectiles and the boss will cause them to drop miniature clocks, which can be collected to restore some time. The Expert edition of Butcher Mode, exclusive to the CD port, introduces new bosses near its end. Both modes of Butcher disable one-hit KO attacks, making them instead subtract 10 seconds from the clock. *' ' The player can adjust music/sound volume controller configuration here, and additionally select whichever music tracks or sound effects they wish to play from the Sound Test. However, the Sound Test will initially start off broken- if the player finds randomized CDs throughout the game's levels and collects them, they will restore some of the Sound Test. Think of them as optional collectibles. Characters Playable NPCs Shop The raisins the player collects throughout the course of their journey are traditionally used to pay off the Reaper to keep the player away from death, but they may additionally be used to purchase items to the player's desire. This is a double-edged sword; purchasing items will leave the player with fewer chances to stay alive, but will provide the player advantages if they're used properly. On the other hand, the player will miss out on these advantages if they choose to not purchase items, but they'll be given many more chances to survive fateful encounters with the Reaper. The player can only purchase items from Ace's shop, and it's their only way of boosting up their maximum health. These items can be found individually, albeit rarely, throughout each level. Numbers and asterisks written in bright pink denote the prices these items are worth for on Expert Mode on the Sega CD version of the game. Stages There are twelve fully-fledged levels in BowieQuest, with the player beginning at the Western Village and finishing their journey at the Fractured Heaven. All stages have their own unique graphics, backgrounds, mechanics, enemies, bosses, and associated music tracks. They are found scattered across the western hemisphere of Stitchonia, spread across the three landmasses located on that side of the planet. Bestiary Throughout the game, the roundup of Sheriff Bowie will encounter a slew of various unique enemies, with over forty to be found and destroyed in BowieQuest. These enemies are typically destroyed using the player's whip, but some enemies have to be tackled and beaten in other ways. All enemies have their own flavor text in the instruction manual, coupled with their official names and level locations. Bosses Think of bosses as oversized enemies, just with a much wider pool of attacks and requiring much more memorization to be beaten. Bosses typically have lots of health and are usually affiliated with themselves, but some bosses have a direct link to Endal and are thus recognized as major bosses (especially in the Sega CD port of the game). They are typically found at the end of each level, but Expert Mode introduces a few mini-bosses and some more are entirely exclusive to Butcher Mode. Sega CD exclusives Reception The original Sega Genesis version of BowieQuest was only a modest success at the time of its release, being the system's second best-selling release from 1995 (after Vectorman) but not being successful enough to move sales of the Genesis, especially during a time where 32-bit and 64-bit technology were becoming increasingly popular. It sold about 1.36 million copies overall, with roughly a fifth of its sales attributed to the sales of the game's Special Edition released on the Sega CD. This does not count software downloads it received as part of the Virtual Console lineup on the Wii, Wii U, V², or Module. BowieQuest would go on to become part of Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and become available for purchase on Steam, whether standalone or as part of the Sega Genesis Classics. In spite of its subpar sales, BowieQuest received warm reviews from critics and gamers alike, thought to be tied with Ristar and Vectorman as one of the best 1995 releases on the Sega Genesis platform. Brandon Black of GamePro appreciated the depth of the gameplay and mechanics as well as the precise detailing of the game's lore, going on to praise Endal the Monkey's character and the rebounding yarn mechanic. He stopped short of giving BowieQuest a perfect score when he criticized the game's "bland" and "clunky" menu design, however. Zach Houck of CVG praised the game for consistently performing at 60 frames per second and admired the smoothness and tightness of the controls, believing they balanced out the game's steep difficulty curve and made every death feel like the player's fault as opposed to the designers'. Mooch Float of EGM shared similar thoughts and additionally praised the appealing character designs, thinking the series "stood a chance" and could survive into the next generations of video gaming if its sequels showed just as much care and overall ambition. Lehaan Bluzen of Sega Power thought of BowieQuest as one of the better examples of well-constructed original platformers, believing the whip mechanic led to a lot of creative level design, and highly appreciated the lore and creative setting. The game did receive some criticism, with complaints commonly surrounding the game's intense difficulty factor. Nathan Brown of Next Generation strongly disliked the game's sharp learning curve and found many of the levels to be frustrating, discouraging him from passing the fourth level. Three of the four Famitsu reviewers agreed with that resentment, all believing the game could have benefited from having a proper tutorial level or a beginner-friendly difficulty setting. Houck admitted that lowering the prices of Ace's items or at least death itself would have made the game more accessible for beginners. All of these reviewers were astonished to find that these levels were not fixed in the Special Edition port of the game, which instead carried the all-new Expert Mode, a decision that Brown referred to as "absolutely ludicrous". Black disagreed with these criticisms, singling out Houck and Brown as "cowards". Soundtrack The soundtrack was written and produced by Spencer Nilsen and David Young of the Sega Technical Institute, who had previously collaborated together on the soundtracks of Ecco: The Tides of Time and Sonic CD (US version). The tracks were designed to be theatrically fitting for the game's setting and stages, while also structurally having the focus of being catchy and memorable. As such, the game's soundtrack has gained a reputation for being very rich and highly complex, designed to take full advantage of the Sega Genesis' hardware. The Sega CD port of the game has an enriched, remastered version of the soundtrack and features one original song: "No Regrets", also composed by Nilsen and Young. All levels additionally have their own lyrics attached to them in the Sega CD version of the game, though this can be disabled. The composition team drew inspiration from traditional Mexican and Japanese music, as well as techno music and environmental noise around cities such as New York. Gallery Official BowieQuest Box.png|Official Genesis boxart BowieQuest Box2.png|Official Sega CD boxart BowieQuest_New_Logo.png|Official logo BowiePyro.png|Official art of Bowie Fanart If you have any fanart for BowieQuest, be sure to drop it here in a gallery! Trivia *The game was originally developed for a handheld system before being moved to the Sega Genesis. It initially had only Bowie as a playable character, there were only six fully fledged levels planned, and many of the game's mechanics would have worked way differently. **The original selection of levels went as follows: Picasso Heights, Castle Crockery, Inky Falls, Voodoo Palace, Gemstone Vegas, and The Ironworks. **It was rumored that the game was initially developed for the Game Boy before changes of plans moved it to the Game Gear, then towards a home console. *Sketches for the game show a kimono-dressed monkey labelled "Savast" and a robotic duplicate of Bowie labelled as "Project X-Terminator". These characters would not make it into the final game for reasons unknown. *The artwork for Bowie is courtesy of . Category:Games Category:Original Games Category:Platforming Games Category:Sega Genesis Games Category:Sega CD Games Category:TimeStrike Products Category:1995 Category:Snicks' stuff